eat fish and help the poor

Marty Rosen in the C-J on an intersection between church fish fries, ministry, and Lent...

It's Lent, a season when church fish fries serve as communal expressions of sacrifice (well, you know what I mean) and celebration. For a complete list of fish fries run by Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of Louisville, connect to www.archlou.org and follow the links.

There are dozens of excellent fish fries in the region. Over the last several years, I've visited about 20 of them, and I've yet to find a single one that wasn't worth visiting. I love the noisy gymnasiums, the clusters of volunteers, the homemade side dishes and desserts. I especially love the places where the kitchen is staffed by longtime volunteers who've developed their own special techniques and recipes for hand-breading the fish.

Most of the area fish fries run from now through March 26...

But if you can get downtown at lunchtime, the fish fry at the Cathedral of the Assumption ought to be at the top of your list. It runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Friday from now through the end of Lent....a project of the cathedral's Social Concerns Ministry...all proceeds benefit the Daily Lunch Program.